12. Appendix D - Glossary

Agency

Any NZ government entity

Authentication

A way of making sure people are who they say they are so that the right people get access to the right information or service.

Directory

A central list of government agencies and staff that is used within government organisations to manage access to information systems within and between agencies.

DOM

Document Object Model - a tree-based representation of an XML document. The whole document is parsed before the document can be read - considered suitable for small XML documents.

DNS

Domain Name Server

ebXML

E-business XML - a joint project of the UN and OASIS to bridge electronic document interchange (EDI) and XML

EGU

The E-government Unit of the State Services Commission

FTP

File Transfer Protocol

GCSB

Government Communication Security Bureau

GML

Geography Markup Language

Guideline

A statement of desired, good or best practice approved by the Government, or its nominee (i.e. the e-GIF governing body). Generally non-compulsory.

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language - the lingua franca of the Internet

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol

LDAP

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

Metadata

Electronic catalogue entries that describe information and services in a structure way. The information in a library card system is metadata that helps you find books you want.

MIME and S/MIME

Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions and Secure Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions

PKI

Public Key Infrastructure - a lock and key system that allows one person to scramble information before sending it to another in a way that can be unscrambled only by the person holding the appropriate key.

PNG

Portable Network Graphic

Policy

A formal statement of compulsory practice made by the Government.

RDF

Resource Description Framework

SAX

Simple API for XML - an event based parser for XML documents that is useful for reading large XML documents as they continue to load.

S.E.E.TM

Secure Electronic Environment

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol

SSC

State Services Commission

Stakeholder

Any person or organisation with a vested interest in a public resource or the public good. While each agency will have its own definition of stakeholders, they will generally include, Parliament, the Government-of-the-day, individual Ministers, the public, customers, businesses, or other government agencies etc.

Standard

Either a) an agreed process/practice/tool promulgated by an internationally approved Standards setting body, or b.) where such a standard is required but not available, approved by the New Zealand Government (e.g. NZGLS Metadata Standard). Generally, e-GIF standards are compulsory.

Structured Data

Information that has been organised to allow identification and separation of the context of the information from its content.

SVG

Scalar Vector Graphics

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol

UDDI

Universal Description, Discovery and Integration

WFS

Web Feature Server

WMS

Web Map Server

WSDL

Web Services Definition Language

XMI

XML Metadata Interchange

XML Schema

W3C extensible markup language (XML) schema definition language for defining the structure, contents and semantics of XML documents.

XSL

Extensible Stylesheet Language